Tourists Flee French Caribbean as Protests Grow More Violent

BASSE-TERRE, Guadeloupe — Tourists stuck at hotels as violent protests swept this Caribbean island began flying out on Thursday after police pulled down barricades on roads leading to the airport following a third night of rioting.

What are they protesting, you ask?

Strikers in Guadeloupe and nearby Martinique are demanding a euro200 ($250) monthly raise for low-paid workers who now make roughly euro900 ($1,130) a month.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Thursday a “a very significant pay raise, in particular for the lower earners,” is now on the table in negotiations between employers and striking workers and President Nicolas Sarkozy later the increase might be exempted from taxes.

Sarkozy called the situation on the islands a “crisis,” saying it had its “roots in the fact that for years, France’s overseas populations were not told the truth because it was thought we could fix everything through a benevolent paternalism.”

Sarkozy seemed to imply that his predecessors preferred to give handouts to overseas regions instead of confronting fundamental flaws in the island economies.

Ah Socialism at its finest. Are you all ready for the future of the USA after the Dems are through with it? Huh are you, are you?